It may seem like the SR-520 process has been going on for years (and it has), but WSDOT is wrapping up it’s Seattle Community Design Process this Friday. They are very interested to hear from a wide variety of voices, because currently much of the noise around the project has disproportionately come from a few vocal neighbors who have been seen as representative of the entire community.

WSDOT is seeking feedback on its design preferences (for more information see their website) by this Friday – October 5th – either by email [email protected] or by an online survey www.surveymonkey.com/s/FC577SY.

While some neighbors have been concerned about the bulk of the new highway, community members of the grassroots group Central Seattle Greenways (which advocates for safe, comfortable, and family-friendly pedestrian and bicycle connections in the Central District and Capitol Hill) wants to make sure that WSDOT uses this opportunity to:

A) Create a multimodal hub in the Montlake lid area that interconnects transit, bike trails, and pedestrian paths to surrounding neighborhoods and the greater Seattle area.
B) Study, design, and build a multi-use trail on the Portage Bay Bridge that connects Capitol Hill and the Central District with Montlake, the UW, the Eastside, the new Arboretum Trail, and the Burke Gilman Trail.

For more information about what Central Seattle Greenways is proposing see their website. Heavyweights, Cascade Bicycle Club are also running a blog post about the importance of commenting before October 5th.

The following graphic is from the Central Seattle Greenways website: